(Minghui.org) Our entire family practices Falun Dafa. For more than two decades, we have benefited tremendously from Dafa and it is hard to put it our gratitude into words.

Dramatic Changes in My Father

My father’s health was bad. He suffered from hypertension, frozen shoulder, and lumbar spondylosis. He was also very short-tempered. Something minor could set him off—he would start to curse and throw things, and eventually even hit people. It was as if there was always some hidden anger burning inside him. Whenever he was home we all had to be extremely cautious for fear that he would direct his anger at us. My mother’s personality was kind and gentle, and she would silently endure my father’s scolding and curses. Our entire family suffered in this fearful and oppressive atmosphere every day.

To make matters worse, at some point, both of my parents became obsessed with playing mahjong. When I came home from school, I would be greeted by a house full of cigarette smoke and the clicking sounds of the mahjong tiles.

I don’t remember how long this went on. I just remember that my father’s addiction to smoking and mahjong got bigger and bigger, and his bad temper and health got worse and worse. He did many things to try to improve his health, such as seeking medical treatment and exercising, but nothing helped.

Then one day, my father came back from exercising in the park and he was very excited. He told us that he saw people practicing Falun Dafa in the park and the music was very nice. He said he was going to practice Falun Dafa, too. He also brought back a Falun Dafa book. We didn’t pay too much attention.

But we soon noticed that my father began to change. He always frowned, but now he smiled and became cheerful. Every day he would happily tell us how great he felt after doing the Falun Dafa exercises. I’m not exaggerating when I say that all his illnesses were gone within two weeks. What surprised us even more was that he said that he could no longer stand the smell of cigarettes, so he quit smoking. He also stopped playing mahjong, saying that Dafa practitioners should not gamble. Of all his changes, the most incredible one for our entire family was that his bad temper and swearing that we hated so much for decades was gone!

Although we did not yet know what Falun Dafa was, we were already in awe of it! To be so miraculous to eliminate illnesses and people’s bad habits, I knew that Falun Dafa just had to be extremely special.

Thus, my sister, who was practicing qigong at the time to improve her poor health, picked up Falun Dafa book, Falun Gong and read it. She couldn’t put it down, and said it answered many questions that she couldn’t find answers to before. She immediately said that she would also practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa.

Seeing my sister’s reaction, I also began to read Falun Gong. I learned that Falun Dafa not only improved one’s health, but could also purify one’s mind. It teaches people to treat others with the principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance,” and emphasizes that practitioners must pay attention to cultivating xinxing. I never heard of a practice that teaches people to focus on the virtues and I understood how my father could change so much from practicing Dafa.

My sister, mother, and I all began to practice Dafa. Soon, my sister’s neurasthenia, anemia and dizziness that troubled her for many years all disappeared. Her severe insomnia was also gone, and she was able to fall asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow. She was so happy!

I didn’t start to practice Dafa for health reasons, but my pharyngitis, arthritis, and back pain all disappeared. Before, I could not dip my feet in cold water, otherwise my knees hurt a lot. After practicing Dafa, I was able to wash my feet directly under the faucet.

My mother also became healthier, stronger and more energetic after practicing Dafa.

The oppressive atmosphere in our home was completely swept away and our family became warm and harmonious. Everyone was full of joy, and we all felt an indescribable happiness. We often sat together and shared our cultivation experiences. All of this was so unbelievable to me that I could only dream about it in the past.

One other thing we witnessed in my father also showed us how powerful and miraculous Dafa is.

The tiles on the roof of our second floor house were broken and in order to save money, my father wanted to replace them himself. He used a long ladder to get to them, but after working on the ladder for a long time, he fell from the top of ladder, from a height of about three meters, onto the hard concrete stairs below. We were all terrified, because my father was already in his fifties. He was in a lot of pain, his face was pale, and he couldn’t speak. We hurriedly carried him to the bed as he groaned in pain. He tried to move but it was too painful. Eventually, he struggled and sat up, crossed his legs into a full lotus position, and meditated.

He felt better afterwards and lied back down again. We watched him closely. He kept getting better as he continued to meditate each day. After three days, he was able to get out of bed, and he started to do the first four exercises. He recovered very quickly and soon was able to walk around the house. Thirteen days later, everything returned to normal, and he was able to go out on his bike to participate in group exercises. If we didn’t see it with our own eyes, it would be hard for us to believe. Our entire family witnessed how miraculous and extraordinary Falun Dafa is!

Looking back, it was a very scary situation. Without the protection of Master and Dafa, my father would have died or been seriously injured. Instead, he recovered in just 13 days and he didn’t even break a bone. We all felt so fortunate to be Dafa disciples and were all extremely grateful to Master for his compassionate protection!

Following Falun Dafa’s Principles to Become an Outstanding Teacher

I’m an elementary school teacher. Over the past two decades of teaching, I noticed that things have gradually undergone great changes. Due to a rapidly declining social environment, teachers are facing greater pressure at work and more criticism from parents. As a result teachers tend to have a lot more anger and complaints. Many parents lack traditional educational concepts, and because of their paranoid love for their children, they cannot rationally look at teachers’ ways of teaching their children, resulting in a lot of tension and disharmony between teachers and parents. It is a common phenomenon these days that teachers lecture parents and parents complain about teachers.

I am very fortunate to be an exception. My students’ parents respect me from the bottom of their hearts, and they are truly willing to cooperate with me. They even take the initiative to help me share the workload in my class. For things like major cleaning, arranging and decorating the classroom, and getting supplies for all the students, even before I have time to make arrangements, some parents have already done it in advance. They respect me and I also treat them like my friends. The other teachers are all very envious.

In fact, if I didn’t practice Falun Dafa, I might have difficulty getting along with the parents just like my colleagues. As an elementary school teacher, especially a class manager, I have to teach as well as handle tedious affairs. The students are young and often have poor self-control thus there are all kinds of problems. Before I began practicing Falun Dafa, I was also very impatient. When my students were disobedient, I would mostly discipline them by yelling, because there was so much to do with so many students, and this was the quickest method. However, often times the students were not really convinced in their hearts. They would complain to their parents about how they were yelled at. Parents would get upset and begin to resent me. Many conflicts between teachers and parents start this way.

After I began practicing Falun Dafa, I understood the importance of cultivating my mind. When speaking and doing things, I knew that I needed to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and consider others’ feelings. I reminded myself that I must not hurt students’ feelings because I could not control my emotions. Although it was not easy to do well overnight, I tried my best to restrain myself. Sometimes when I couldn’t control my anger I really regretted it afterwards and told myself not to lose my temper again in the future.

I found that I no longer get angry easily. No matter how annoying the situation is, my first reaction is to think from the perspective of the student: why did he make this mistake? I’ve found that when I was able to let go of my own feelings and think about others first, I don’t become angry, and I’m more understanding. I’m also more productive in dealing with problems when I’m calm. When educating the students, I remind them to be considerate of others, and be kind to others. I constantly examine my own behavior for things I did that were not in accordance with the Fa, and I always give students opportunities to correct their mistakes. They feel my tolerance and care for them, and they began to like me from the bottom of their hearts. At the same time, they are more likely to accept my advice.

Little by little, in my soft spoken conversations with them, the students gradually behaved better and better. I often tell them stories about the traditional values and traditional Chinese culture, and they listen with great interest. Over time, the students in my class have become caring, sensible, positive, and kind. The teachers of every subject all love to teach the students in my class, and praise them for being well-behaved, active, and pleasant to teach.

My colleagues often ask, “How did you train students to be so easy to work with?” In fact, this cannot be achieved by using superficial methods. This really comes from the fact that the students and I have deep communications from our hearts, from the students’ belief in me, and from my sincere care for them.

For many, the grades of the students represent the level and performance of the teachers, and thus many teachers regard their students as a tool to win personal fame and fortune. In order to improve students’ grades, some teachers insist that students take extra classes outside the school; some teachers assign a lot of homework; and some teachers even deliberately reveal the answers of the questions during the tests. As a Dafa disciple, of course I cannot do these. This kind of approaches of seeking quick success or seeking profits are not good for the students’ growth or the development of their learning ability, and may even lead them into feeling resentful about classes.

In order to make students truly improve, teachers should put more effort into designing the lessons to grow students’ interest and enthusiasm in learning, and help them form good study habits. I prepare carefully for every class to make sure the students will not only master the core contents, but also feel relaxed and happy. When they are able to learn with great interest and think actively, the lessons are effective. When assigning homework, I also try to be as concise as possible. I carefully grade and comment on each student’s homework, and from the home work of each student, I try to get an idea of the student’s learning attitude and how well the student is doing in the class, so that I know which students need more help and attention.

Although this process takes more time and energy, but it is effective in helping students to improve. The test scores of the class I manage are always at the top, and the students are always very interested in the Chinese class I teach. Even after class, they sometimes surround me to continue the conversation. Compared with the students in other classes who are always buried in the pile of homework, the students in my class are able to learn well with ease, and they are much happier. They finish their homework early every day, which makes the students in other classes quite envious.

It is now a common practice for parents to give gifts to teachers. Before practicing Falun Dafa, I also accepted gifts, and I even compared with my colleagues, making sure that I wasn’t receiving too little. After cultivating, I understood that this was not the right thing to do. When teachers’ emphasis are on personal interests, it inevitably biases them to favor certain students. It also places pressure on those parents who do not give gifts. Moreover, from the Fa I understood the principle of “no loss, no gain” (Lecture Two, Zhuan Falun), so I no longer accepted any gifts.

Because gift-giving is such a common thing to do nowadays, at first, some parents did not understand me when I refused their gifts, and even mistakenly thought that I refused because it wasn’t enough. Even after I repeatedly explained to them, the parents would still be in doubt. But after a while, the parents saw that I worked diligently with every student, treated all the students the same, and did not favor any students over others, they then knew that they had encountered a good teacher who was truly unique. They were grateful and respected me from the bottom of their hearts.

Some of my colleagues also hated me when I began to refuse gifts from parents, because they felt that what I did affected them. Some thought that I was doing it to get famous; some gave me dirty looks, and some even began to avoid me.

I felt very sad I didn’t think it would be so difficult for me to just try to be a good person. But I didn’t argue, and I still treated them with sincerity and enthusiasm. At the same time, I strictly required myself to follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in dealing with everything in work and life. Because I was open-hearted, honest, kind, conscientious in my work, and did not care about personal gain, my colleagues gradually understood that I did not accept gifts because I practiced Falun Dafa. My relationship with them then became better and better.

I also found that under my influence, my colleagues have also changed. They became more serious about their work, and kinder to their students. The math teacher stopped accepting gifts from parents, and she no longer loses her temper with the students. In the past, she was always dissatisfied with her students, but now she often praises them. Our work environment has become warm and harmonious.

Along the way, although I have spent much effort, I have gained even more. In addition to being respected and recognized by others, I was also able to bring out the kindness of people around me, which is very meaningful and significant.

My Child

My child does very well at school in both his studies and extra curricular activities. We have many portfolios filled with his certificates and awards, in academics, music, and sports. My friends always tease me, “Your child is what everyone calls ‘The other person’s child,’ totally beyond reach!” People often ask me how I raise my child.

In fact, we never looked into any special methods for raising children. All we do is read Master’s book Zhuan Falun with our son, and guide him to do things according to Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Nowadays, most parents are worried that their children will get taken advantage of and suffer losses in society, and they always teach their children how to be clever, and not be bullied by others. But we do the opposite. We teach our child to be sincere and kind to others, to be tolerant when encountering conflicts, to consider other people’s feelings when doing things, and not to bully others. My friends are worried that the way I teach my child will lead to him being bullied, but the fact is that he gets along very well with his classmates. He is a very happy child and everyone wants to be friends with him.

I remember when he was very young, he liked to watch the cartoon “Journey to the West.” In order to protect his eyesight and also train him to be disciplined, I asked him to watch the clock and remind me to turn off the TV at a specific. Then I went to do housework. After a while, he came over to tell me, “Mom, the long needle has gotten to that number!” I was very happy because I knew he really wanted to keep watching, but he was able to resist the temptation because he already formed the habit of being honest and trustworthy.

When he got a little older, I taught him to read Zhuan Falun and Hong Yin. When he was five, he already knew many Chinese characters, and Falun Dafa’s principles, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, had already taken root in his heart. We often told him that as a young Dafa disciple, he should be a good person wherever he was, including being a good student at school. Therefore, from kindergarten, elementary school, to middle school, he has always been a good student, and well-liked by all his teachers. He enjoys studying, respects his teachers, and does very well in all the subjects.

With excellent academic performance, he was admitted to the best junior high school and later the best high school in our area. In the eyes of others, since the competition among students is so strong nowadays, it should have taken a lot of hard work for him to achieve such accomplishments. But in fact, he didn’t put in much extra effort and it felt like he easily got to this point. As parents, we were never worried about him and we just guided him in the right direction. We were never like many other parents who had to spend a lot of time to accompany their children to study and forcing them to do things. We know in our hearts that our child has benefited so much from studying Dafa. From our own experience we know that as long as we follow Dafa’s requirements, our work will go very smoothly, thus we know that it would be the same for our child in his studies. Although he is excellent at school, he is very humble and never shows off.

We know from Dafa that it is not a bad thing for people to endure some hardships, so we never spoil him. From the day he began attending school, he always carried his own backpack. We did not do anything for him if he could do it himself. Thus, he adapts well under any circumstances.

He is a very sensible child. When he sees me carrying things, he takes them from me and carries them. I often hear my colleagues say how rebellious their children become when they begin attending middle school. But my child never did this. He communicates with us very well when he encounters things. If there are any issues, we guide him using Dafa’s principles, and he is very willing to take our advice.

He is very polite to his elders. When his grandparents visit, he immediately stands up to greet them. In order to make grandma happy, he plays cards with her and deliberately loses. In China, most children are the only child in the family. The family caters to them so they are very self-centered, and rarely think of others. But our child is able to put others first when doing things and is considerate of others. This is all from practicing Falun Dafa.

Every practitioner has benefited immensely from Falun Dafa. Falun Dafa is now practiced in more than 100 countries and regions around the world, is well-received by all people, and has received many awards from various governments at all levels and non-governmental organizations. Master’s book, Zhuan Falun, has been translated into 40 languages. Dafa is only being suppressed and persecuted by the Chinese Communist regime. Many Chinese people have been deceived by the propaganda and lies of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), and they have misunderstandings toward Dafa or even have hostile feelings towards Dafa practitioners. This is truly a great misfortune for the Chinese people. I hope that through the stories of me and my family, more people can see how we have benefited so much from practicing Dafa, and can get to know the truth and have a correct understanding of Dafa. Falun Dafa is truly of high virtue and will totally benefit the country and the people without any negative aspects. I hope all the kind people will be able to make the right choice and have a bright future.